by Sammie Joyce
“How’s she doing?” Maria’s eyes flicked to Hope.
“Good. She’s just been fed, so I think she’ll be happy for a while.”
“Can I… can I hold her?”
Rose grinned. “Of course.” She handed Hope over, feeling her smile widen as Maria rocked her.
“She’s beautiful.”
“She is.” Asher’s voice was bursting with pride. “We’re glad she’ll have a home here. We want things to go smoothly, for her sake. You said there might be some questions?”
“Yes. A lot of the coven is unimpressed at how they all fell under Hellith’s influence while under my guidance, and I can’t say I blame them. There is a push from some for you to take over as coven leader immediately, Rose.”
Oh. Rose hadn’t expected that. Even with five of them, raising Hope was hard work, not that she’d trade it for anything. Still, she didn’t know if she had the time or energy to lead a coven too, at least while Hope was still so small.
“I’m not sure that’s a good idea.” She glanced at Asher, who nodded.
“We’ve just gotten back. I think Rose needs time to catch her breath before taking over.”
“Agreed. It’s probably also a good idea for you to learn more about your powers before taking over. As coven leader, people will come to you with questions on magical matters. Of course, you will have advisors, but it may be best for you to be a little further along your own path of knowledge first.”
The thought of having people ask her about magic when Rose was basically a baby in her powers was intimidating. “I would like to learn more. I’ve always loved learning. But I may need to go slower, now that I have Hope. I’m sure the coven will be willing to help with her, but she still needs to spend most of her time with her parents.”
Maria nodded. “Shall we set the provisional date for a year from now? You should be able to learn a lot by then, even with Hope. We can also ease you into things. As the time gets closer, you can start taking on more administrative and leadership duties. When we make the switch, it won’t feel like such a change.”
“You’ll stay on as Rose’s advisor?” Mace was obviously thinking along the same lines as Rose.
“If she wants me, I’d be honored.”
“I do want you. Elaine too, if she’ll agree.” Rose would probably ask Annabelle to be on her advisory board too. Apart from her dragons, there was no one at the coven she trusted as much as Annabelle, who had stood by her through thick and thin, and even got into hell with her.
“I think that’s everything, then. Shall we go to dinner?”
“Not yet. I’m sorry to have to bring this up, but we need to be sure. We need some assurances of Hope’s safety. I know you were all under Hellith’s spell before, but that spell worked to expand fears that were already there.” Asher gave Maria an apologetic smile. “I’m sure you understand why we’re worried.”
“I do, but I swear, I never would have let you come back unless I was sure that Hope was safe. You have named her well. She represents hope for all of us. Harming her would be against everyone’s interests, and we all know that.”
It’ll be fine, Asher. Rose spoke into his mind, but kept the link open so that his brothers could hear too. She knew that Gavin, at least, was having similar thoughts to him. We can leave at the first hint of trouble, but we have to give everyone here a chance. They’re our family.
Rose wouldn’t forget the effects of Hellith’s spell anytime soon, but she believed Maria. No one wanted to hurt Hope. Hellith was safely in her cage in hell, and they all knew what not to do to avoid being bewitched again.
I know. I just had to ask.
I know.
Aloud, Asher said, “I understand. Thank you, Maria.”
Hope stirred a little in her holder. Rose adjusted her slightly, leaning back in her chair. It was good to be home.
Chapter Two
It was like they’d never left. Rose started her lessons with Maria again. Wendy and Jade were a bit ahead of her and Annabelle, but Maria was pretty good at splitting her attention and helping all of them at once.
Everyone loved Hope. Asher soon got over his worry about letting her out of his sight, but Gavin complained that she wouldn’t know who her parents were anymore. Rose wasn’t worried, though. Hope still spent most nights with them, and in the day, one of her fathers was almost always with her, even if she was technically being looked after by someone else for a few hours.
Rose certainly appreciated the time to pick up on her sex life again, but she also loved spending time with Hope, even if she was screaming her head off. Things in the coven were calm and good… Rose just wished she could trust that.
It seemed that Asher and Mace were having some similar thoughts to her, but they took those thoughts in a different direction. Rose tried not to comment, hoping they would decide not to bring their ideas up.
When you can read someone’s mind, you quickly learn that some thoughts are idle or passing, and you don’t have to react to all of them.
Several weeks passed, and Rose was beginning to think that perhaps these thoughts would be allowed to pass, but unfortunately, it didn’t turn out like that.
The five of them were lying tangled together in bed, their sweat still drying. Annabelle and Dane had Hope for the night, and they were taking full advantage of it.
“I’ve been thinking…” Asher began.
“Oh no, not that! Anything but that!”
Usually, Rose would tell Jagger to shut up, but tonight, she was with him. When neither she nor Gavin said anything, Mace spoke up.
“Shut up, Jagger.”
Crap. If Mace and Asher had both decided to bring this up, Rose probably couldn’t avoid it anymore.
Asher plowed on. “Hellith is still very much alive, and very dangerous. She’s already proven she can hurt us from her cage in hell.”
“Not if we don’t do divination rituals.” Rose had been through these arguments in her head ever since she’d started picking up Asher’s and Mace’s thoughts about Hellith, and knew them by heart.
“Who’s to say that the divination rituals aren’t the only ones she can hack? Maybe there’s more. Or maybe in time, she’ll learn to influence us without needing to hijack our spells.” Apparently, Mace knew his arguments by heart too.
“We’ll be careful, that’s all. We managed last time, and we’ll manage next time, if there even is a next time.” Rose hoped they’d leave it at that, but she should have known better.
Asher drew himself up slightly, as much as his current position would allow. “We cannot allow a threat to live.”
“It’s too dangerous, Asher! You know that.” Gavin put an arm around Rose, but his eyes were on his brother. “Hope needs all of her parents. Risking our lives to kill Hellith is stupid. She’ll just as likely kill us first.”
For once, Jagger agreed with Gavin. “If we try to kill her, the chances of her escaping hell in the process are high. If we leave her where she is, she’ll at least still be in the cage if she ever makes another attempt at harming us.”
“We don’t know that. She may well figure a way out of that cage. I’m with Asher. We have the advantage now. If we ignore the threat, we may not have the advantage when she chooses to press the attack. Hellith hasn’t given up in hundreds of years. She’s certainly not going to give up now.”
Mace had a point, but the thought of her dragons fighting Hellith again made Rose cold with fear. “I can’t lose you. Any of you.”
“That’s why we need to kill her,” Asher argued. “You think it’s any easier for me to think of losing any one of you? Acting now gives us all the best chance.”
That was the crux of it, Rose supposed. They all wanted to be safe, and have their loved ones safe. Their disagreement was on the best way to accomplish that.
Mace picked up on Rose’s thoughts. “This is a military decision. Our goals are the same. We don’t need to decide this ourselves. We have a whole coven at our disposal. A lot
of the witches and dragons here have much more experience in fighting than we do. We should put it up to the vote.”
Evidently, he thought that he could convince the coven to act rather than wait, and Rose wasn’t entirely sure he was wrong.
But she couldn’t really argue his logic. She may be powerful, but she had little experience fighting, not like some of the older witches and dragons. Still, the thought of going back into hell…
“You’re not going,” Asher snapped, answering her thoughts.
“If we put it up to the vote, and it goes through, then who goes will be on a volunteer basis.” Rose knew Asher wanted to protect her, but that didn’t mean she’d let him tell her what to do. “I’m the coven leader, by right if not yet by title. If we decide to do it, of course I’m going.”
“I won’t let you—”
“And I need not remind you that even if I wasn’t coven leader of the coven, which now includes the dragons, I am still co-leader of the dragon clan. You don’t have any authority over me, Asher.”
Asher’s mouth opened and closed like a goldfish. He knew Rose was right.
“We don’t do it, then,” Gavin growled. “That makes everyone happy.”
“Until Hellith kills one of us! Who’s happy then?” Mace hardly ever shouted, which told Rose just how strongly he felt about this.
“As opposed to her killing all of us if we’re foolish enough to try to attack her?” There was no hint of humor on Jagger’s usually smiling face.
Rose hated arguing with her dragons, and she knew she didn’t have to do it. “Enough! We’re not fighting about this. I am the coven leader, and I have the final say on this. In order to make the best decision for the coven, I will put the matter to everyone, so that each person can vote based on their own experience. I will go with whatever option the coven chooses.
“If that option is to attack Hellith, every member of this coven will have the option to volunteer to go on the attack. Everyone who wants to go will be allowed to. That’s how it will be.”
“But—”
“What if—”
“You should—”
“I still say—”
“ENOUGH! My word on this matter is final. I will hear no more.”
Asher, Jagger, Gavin, and Mace were shocked into silence. Rose almost never used her authority with them, preferring to discuss things and come to an agreement together. This time, it was clear they weren’t going to be able to come to an agreement, and fighting about it would just make them all miserable. They would all have their say when they voted.
Rose stared each of them down, daring them to say anything else. One by one, they broke her gaze, bowing their heads in acquiescence. Far from making her powerful, their compliance just made Rose feel shitty. She never wanted to be above them. Even though she and Asher were co-leaders, she saw Jagger, Mace, and Gavin as just as much her equals.
“I’ll discuss the vote with Maria tomorrow.” Her tone, if not her words, was conciliatory. “We’ll need to give everyone some time to consider their options and decide what their vote will be.”
“We should announce the choice to the coven, once we’ve talked to Maria.” Asher’s face was a blank mask, but Rose could tell that he was still worried by the idea of her going back into hell. “I say we tell them about the decision they need to make, and give them about a week.”
“Agreed. No need to let them stew for longer than they need to. We don’t want people to fight about this. The last thing we need is a coven divided. We’ll give them enough time to make an informed decision, but not enough to start arguing over it.” If the issue could cause a fight between her and her dragons, Rose knew it would certainly cause strife within the coven.
“I think you should reconsider letting everyone who volunteers go.” Mace held up his hands as Rose opened her mouth. “I’m not talking about you! What I mean is that we’ll need healers both at the site of the battle, and hanging back. There’s huge value in having fresh and uninjured healers a safe distance away to help anyone who gets hurt.”
Rose nodded slowly. “We can discuss that with Maria. I imagine some of the healers will choose to stay back for that reason, but if not, we may have to mandate it.”
“Ten blowjobs to the first person to convince Rose to become a healer.” Jagger winked at her.
“Well, since I’m off learning to be a healer, I guess you’ll be the one delivering on those blowjobs.”
Gavin pretended to gag. “Over my dead body will I let my brother blow me.”
“I bet I could do it better than you.”
“You’d better stop them.” Mace’s mock whisper to Asher was clearly audible even to Rose. “We do not want them deciding to settle this issue with a competition.”
“Especially since you and I will probably be the guinea pigs. Right, shut up you two! Time to go to sleep.”
Jagger and Gavin were still tossing jibes at each other’s imaginary blowjob skills as Rose closed her eyes, and she fell asleep with a smile on her lips.
As she expected, the idea of taking the attack to Hellith caused no small amount of strife within the coven.
Rose and Maria put a stop to the worst of the in-fighting and tried their best to encourage civil discussion.
From what Rose could tell, the coven was pretty evenly split on the issue. In a response to multiple requests, Maria held two meetings where the pros and cons were discussed in depth. Each side tried their best to convince the other that they were right.
What made it more confusing for everyone was that the leadership was split on the issue too. Rose was against, Maria was for. Asher was for, but Gavin, who had been his second-in-command before Rose, was against.
Dane, Elaine, and almost all of the healers were against, and unsurprisingly, the people who had fought in the front lines in the witch-dragon wars were for.
Rose eventually asked her dragons not to discuss it in front of her anymore. She’d heard all the arguments, and going over them again and again was exhausting. They did as she asked, but she couldn’t escape their thoughts. She couldn’t escape her own.
Hope was Rose’s best solace. All Hope wanted was food, a clean diaper, sleep, and cuddles with her parents. Even being woken up in the middle of the night by a screaming baby was borderline relaxing when set against worrying whether or not it was a good idea to make another trip into hell.
The day of the vote finally dawned. Hope woke Rose up early, even though Jagger was on duty. Jagger had been arguing with Mace late into the night, and both of them were passed out and exhausted. They’d kept their argument to mental speech, but Rose had heard bits of it all the same.
She sat quietly in the lounge feeding Hope, wondering what the outcome would be. They would be doing the vote in the ballroom, which was the only room big enough to fit all of them at once.
When she was done with Hope, Rose put her back to bed and quietly left the basement. Maria was already in the ballroom, setting up.
“Everything ready?” Rose glanced at the piles of paper and pens, but those weren’t the main components of the vote. Many people felt strongly enough about this that Rose wouldn’t put it past them to try to cheat. The whole ballroom was laced with spells aimed at detecting any form of dishonesty.
Even the pens and papers were spelled. If someone even considered trying to cheat, alarms would go off all over the room. Only Rose, Asher, and Maria knew about this. They’d decided it was safest to keep the measures under wraps. Rose and Asher had even kept their thoughts from Jagger, Gavin, and Mace.
It wasn’t like Rose expected any of them to cheat—she knew that no matter how strongly her dragons felt, they wouldn’t do that. It was just that the more people knew about the stringent anti-cheating measures, the more chance there was that one of them might let something slip.
The measures wouldn’t do much good if they were common knowledge.
“Ready. We’ve still got an hour before the vote.”
Rose nodded
and took a seat next to Maria on the slightly raised stage area. Over the next hour, people started filing in. Some were quiet, while others were enthusiastically discussing last-minute arguments for or against fighting Hellith.
Asher came to stand by Rose’s side. Gavin, Jagger, and Mace stood near the front.
When the hour was up, Rose stood. “Alright, you all know why you’re here. We’ve all heard the arguments for and against trying to take the initiative and destroy Hellith. All that’s left is to vote. Write ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to the question of whether you want to take the fight to her, and drop your answer in the basket.”
Rose went first, writing a firm “no”, folding her paper, and putting it in the collection basket.
The vote went surprisingly quickly. Within fifteen minutes, the basket was full of folded pieces of paper.
“You ready?” Rose and Maria were doing the counting spell jointly. Once that was done, the decision would be confirmed by Asher and Gavin counting the vote by hand, but no one really believed the spell would fail or be fixed to a certain result.
“Ready. You remember the incantation?”
“I do.” Rose had practiced the spell beforehand, and was certain she had it down by now.
She and Maria spoke together. The papers rustled as the spell went through them.
Glowing purple words formed in midair.
Yes: 42
No: 38
Rose sighed. She had expected as much, but that didn’t make the prospect any easier. No one cheered. Even those people who had voted for it didn’t relish the idea of facing Hellith.
Her eyes sought Jagger, who was holding Hope.
Maybe it was best this way. They’d be making a safer world for their daughter.
Rose just hoped that all of them came out of this alive.
Chapter Three
“We can’t all go.” Rose’s dragons looked up at her in surprise. It was a couple of hours after the vote, and they had retired to the basement to talk through the plan. There would be an official meeting with Maria and the rest of the coven later, but Rose needed to talk to her dragons first.